Theatregoers surprised by unexpected digital art installation before ‘curtain up’ at The Lowry

Theatregoers attending the performance of La Cage aux Folles at The Lowry last night were treated to a surprise digital art installation before curtain up.

As the audience took their seats in the theatre, a feast of light, sound, colour and technology took over the space for seven minutes.

The piece, which is called IRIS, is the work of Marshmallow Laser Feast – one of Europe’s pioneering digital art collectives and is supported by researchers at the Interactive Architecture Lab UCL.

It has been specially designed to respond to The Lowry’s Lyric Theatre space and will run before select theatre performances until 16 July.

Created using 42 robotic laser heads, IRIS forms part of The Lowry’s commitment to introducing new art forms to its visitors.

Julia Fawcett OBE, chief executive of The Lowry, said: “Digital is now a very well established artistic genre. It has a huge representation in the cultural calendars of places like Amsterdam, Berlin and Toronto and this commission forms part of our drive to lead Salford, Greater Manchester and the wider-North West’s offering in this field.

“Marshmallow Laser Feast has an excellent reputation for delivering work that pushes boundaries and redefines expectations – so they were the natural partner for this project. Our hope is that by presenting their work to unsuspecting audiences we can introduce, from scratch, an art form they might not have ever considered before.”

Ersin Han Ersin, creative director of Marshmallow Laser Feast, said: “The beauty of IRIS is that we manipulate the audience’s relationship with the stage by making the whole auditorium our canvas, the architecture and audience become part of the performance and evolves our connection with the stage from ephemeral to tangible.”